mid-1980s during that station's phase of becoming a superstation with intrastate coverage across Wisconsin. Eventually though, FamilyNet was added to Charter systems through a national deal to add it to their digital family tier, and carriage of WWAZ was of no priority to Charter, as the station carried the network without any local deviation, along with having on-air malfunctions to the point their hourly station identification would often not show up. The station ceased broadcasting in January 2008 as the financial issues of Pappas Telecasting elsewhere began to build up, resulting in the ceasing of operations of Walla Walla, Washington sister station KCWK. After the station went silent, a slide on the station's slot on Time Warner Cable went up containing the sentence WWAZ-TV informed Time Warner Cable that it has ceased broadcast operations until further notice. On January 15, 2008, WWAZ-TV filed a request with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to cease broadcasting in analog before the end of the digital television transition period and become a digital-only station, broadcasting on UHF channel 44. The request was approved in late July 2008. The station continued to broadcast for a short time before permanently ending its analog service within two weeks. Pappas filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on May 10, 2008, though the WWAZ license, operations and facilities were not covered under the filing. Due to Pappas's financial problems, the station remained silent long-term, and in an FCC filing, the station requested a move to channel 5 after CBS affiliate WFRV-TV discontinued its analog signal and vacated the channel in March 2009 (retaining its digital channel 39), but asserted it was unable to complete the new transmitter and tower until 2010 at the earliest. Move to Milwaukee area In August 2009, the FCC conditionally approved the move to channel 5 after the build-out of the new transmitter, which was approved for the traditional tower site on the northeast side of Milwaukee from the Milwaukee PBS tower. The channel 5 construction permit was accepted by the FCC on October 16, 2009. The petition to move was contested by Weigel Broadcasting, WLFM-LP (now WRME-LD) in Chicago (a station using the analog channel 6 audio overlap quirk on 87.7 FM to broadcast a smooth jazz radio station with video imagery; it now by coincidence carries a Weigel-programmed oldies format spun off from their MeTV network and an ATSC 3.0 signal with Jewelry Television),